"Q Television, also a 24-hour subscription service, will be announcing its cable providers and availability in the next few weeks"
http://www.newyorkblade.com/2004/5-28/news/national/logo.cfm
http://www.southernvoice.com/2004/5-28/news/national/viacom.cfm Viacom announces launch of gay TV channel
Logo to hit cable in February as Comcast considers offering for Atlanta market
By BRIAN MOYLAN
Friday, May 28, 2004
Logo, an all-gay basic cable television channel backed by MTV, will hit the airwaves on Feb. 17, 2005, Viacom officials announced this week.
“What has been missing is a home, a home on television [the gay] audience can call their own,” said Tom Freston, chair and CEO of MTV Networks. “We believe, with this new network, we’ll be providing that home.”
Officials at MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom, said when the new the new cable channel launches, it will feature 25 percent original programming and 75 percent acquired programming, including previously aired shows and movies.
Judy McGrath, president of MTV Networks Group — which also includes VH1, Comedy Central, Country Music Television, Spike TV, Nickelodeon and TV Land — said that Logo has 40 specials or programs in the development phase and about 20 in the pilot phase.
No specific programming announcements were made this week.
“It’s so important that we roll out a slate of programming that represents the diversity of the gay and lesbian audience,” said Matt Farber, a consultant who proposed the channel and has been spearheading its development. “We want to have that ready and unveil it at a separate time.”
That time may come at the Television Critics Association conference in mid July.
McGrath said that Logo would co-produce shows and specials with other MTV networks and other Viacom-owned properties like Showtime and CBS. She said those behind Logo are working with CBS News to create everything from a monthly gay newsmagazine to regular MTV News-style newsbreaks.
Under current arrangements, Logo will initially be available in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. More cities may be added by the 2005 launch date.
No gay TV in the ATL
A spokesperson for Comcast, the major cable provider in metro Atlanta with some 600,000 customers, said that no arrangements have been made to carry the channel yet.
“We applaud MTV for developing a programming network designed to meet the needs of an important group of customers and we look forward to learning more about the network’s programming and business objectives,” said Reg Griffin, spokesperson for Comcast’s southern region.
The company hasn’t yet met with MTV Networks to discuss the channel and the possibility of adding it to Comcast’s offerings, Griffin said.
MTV aims to have Logo in 14 million homes by the end of 2005.
As an advertising-based basic cable channel, Logo will be subject to the same standards for programming as any other basic cable channel, which means limited profanity and intense adult situations.
“We’re not using profanity; we’re not using sex,” MTV’s Freston said. “This is going to be mainstream programming that you see everywhere else, except for the fact that it’s targeted to the gay and lesbian community.”
Howard Buford, CEO of Prime Access, Inc., an advertising agency that represents Fortune 500 companies in gay markets, says that Logo has a better chance with advertisers since it’s backed by Viacom.
“[Logo] will be the quality of an MTV or a Comedy Central if Viacom is behind it, and that is going to put at ease any advertisers who might be concerned about content,” he said, adding that gay consumers are especially attractive to advertisers.
“Research indicates the tremendous loyalty that the GLBT community has toward advertisers that support their values and support their communities,” he said.
Boycott threatened
MTV officials said they expected no backlash over the channel, but hours after Logo was unveiled, the Traditional Values Coalition announced it plans to boycott Logo advertisers.
“It doesn’t improve television,” TVC Chair Rev. Louis Sheldon told the Associated Press. “It only continues to offer moral anarchy for a very seriously dysfunctional lifestyle.”
Buford, who is gay, said a boycott of Logo is ill-advised.
“If [Logo] is following the same standards [as other cable channels], a boycott becomes not about content, it comes down to hate,” he said.
“At this point, the long list of active marketers in the GLBT community has made it untenable to sustain a boycott action,” he said. “Virtually every airline is active in marketing or advertising to gay travelers. Are people going to stop flying?”
The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation both issued statements applauding MTV’s announcement of the channel.
Viacom has said for years it planned on launching a gay channel, but those plans never panned out. The idea was bandied about by the company as early as 1994.
In 2002, Showtime and MTV announced the companies were researching the viability of a gay subscription channel, supposedly to be named Outlet. The plan was dropped, but supposedly resurrected in December 2003.
In March, Viacom Chair and Chief Executive Sumner Redstone told the Wall Street Journal that he ordered Freston to come up with a business plan for a gay channel.
Stiff competition?
Logo will join two other gay cable channels, here!TV, which launched on satellite providers DirectTV in August 2003 and the Dish Network in March 2004, and Q Television Network, which announced this week plans to launch in July.
PridevisionTV, Canada’s gay channel, which started in 2001 and is now in 25,000 homes, said in April that it was still looking for funding to launch on U.S. cable outlets this fall.
Here!TV is an on-demand service, where customers can order gay movies and original programming. It will launch as a 24-hour subscription service, similar to HBO or Showtime, with RCN Cable in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco in August.
Q Television, also a 24-hour subscription service, is scheduled to announce its cable providers and availability in the next few weeks.
Paul Colichman, president and founder of here!TV, doesn’t see Logo as competition.
“Here!TV is a pay channel, and Logo is basic cable, so we’re on different tiers, we’re not competitors,” Colichman said. “I’m pleased because, as a pay channel, we need a place to sell our programming when we’re done with it. Now we have a place, so I’m rooting for them.”
The original programming for Here!TV includes “Dante’s Cove,” a gay series that just completed filming, and “The Complex,” a lesbian soap opera.
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